Acehnese Adolescents' Awareness of Acehnese Idiom and Simile
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319 | Studies in English Language and Education, 6(2), 319-332, 2019 Acehnese Adolescents’ Awareness of Acehnese Idiom and Simile P-ISSN 2355-2794 E-ISSN 2461-0275 Ida Muliawati*1 Nyak Mutia Ismail2 Fera Busfina Zalha3 1Department of English, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Iskandarmuda, Banda Aceh 23234, INDONESIA 2Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh 23111, INDONESIA 3Department of English, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Islam Negeri Ar-Raniry, Banda Aceh 23111, INDONESIA Abstract Acehnese language is rich in its figurative languages such as in forms of idioms and similes. Acehnese people have been magnifying the idioms and similes over decades to soften utterances, and they are inherited from generation to generation. Consequently, this study aimed at investigating Acehnese adolescents’ understanding of Acehnese idioms and similes. Qualitative research designed was used, and data were collected through a questionnaire consisting of 10 Acehnese figurative language expressions. There were 51 respondents, aged within 18-21 years old who all are indigenous Acehnese. The result suggests that Acehnese adolescents are still knowledgeable about them. There is 72.8% of respondents who are considered to understand the idioms asked in the questionnaire set. Meanwhile, those who did not understand the expressions come from different language continuum areas. In conclusion, Acehnese adolescents are still aware of the Acehnese figurative language, and this positivity shall help in preserving the values of Acehnese language for the next generation to come. Keywords: Acehnese, figurative language, idiom, simile, adolescents. * Corresponding author, email: [email protected] Citation in APA style: Muliawati, I., Ismail, N. M., & Zalha, F. B. (2019). Acehnese adolescents’ awareness of Acehnese idiom and simile. Studies in English Language and Education, 6(2), 319-332. Received June 05, 2019; Revised August 27, 2019; Accepted August 30, 2019 https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v6i2.14180 ©Syiah Kuala University. All rights reserved. I. Muliawati, N. M. Ismail, & F. B. Zalha, Acehnese adolescents’ awareness of Acehnese idiom and simile | 320 1. INTRODUCTION One of the regional languages which are worthy to note in Indonesia is Acehnese language, the so-called Bahsa or Basa Acèh. This language is mostly and natively spoken by people in Aceh Province, a place located on the north tip of Sumatera Island, Indonesia. To be exact, it is primarily spoken by Acehnese who live in coastal regions in Aceh, covering Sabang, Banda Aceh, Lhokseumawe, Langsa, Aceh Besar, Pidie, Pidie Jaya, Bireuen, Aceh Utara, Aceh Timur, Aceh Tamiang, Aceh Jaya, Aceh Barat, Aceh Barat Daya, and Aceh Selatan (Wildan, 2010). Moreover, this language possesses nine main regional languages (Pillai & Yusuf, 2012) and the language, more surprisingly, is not only spoken in those thirteen regencies in Aceh but also in Malaysia such as in the region of Yan, Keudah (Yusuf et al., 2013). Besides its vocabulary and dialect varieties fastened on Acehnese language that have become topics of interest, Acehnese figurative languages have also been drawn more attention recently. The Acehnese figurative language, as a part of its culture and customs, as well as language, has been rooted and inherited traditionally among Acehnese for decades. It has been magnified in communication until recently and noticed as a meaningful and influential device to empower utterances. Generally, figurative language is centralized to describe someone, something, and even a situation by comparing it to or with something else (Spivey, 2011). It can take multiple forms, i.e., metaphor, personification, idiom, simile, etc. however, the idiom and simile are the most common figurative languages among Acehnese which are utilized to describe either a situation or someone’s good or bad attitude and action (Azwardi, 2014). In other words, they are magnified by speakers either to soften utterances that probably hurt the listeners or to say something indirectly (teasing) in the way to make an analogy of someone or something. For instance, the idiom gasien meukuwien is used to describe and analogize the condition of being extremely poor. The word gasien means ‘poor’ and the word meukuwien means ‘being folded’. Therefore, the condition of extremely poor and nothing to have to strive the life is best said by using gasien meukuwien. Another example is that plueng beureutoh uteun which means ‘running very fast in all directions or running helter-skelter’. To be precise, the word plueng means ‘to run’, the word beureutoh means ‘to explode’, and the word uteuen is defined as ‘forest’. Those two examples are Acehnese idioms. Similes are also frequently used by Acehnese in daily life speaking. For instance, lagee lalat mirah rueng is one of the most common examples of an Acehnese simile which expresses someone who tends to oppose one side against the other. If the phrase is separated, then, the word lagee means ‘like’ or ‘as’, lalat is ‘a fly’, mirah is translated as ‘red’, and rueng is literally ‘back (part of the body)’. In addition, to analogize someone’s messy handwriting, Acehnese is fond of using the simile lagee manok keumireueh. By separating the phrase, it will promptly show its literal meaning; lagee is ‘like’ or ‘as’, manok is ‘chicken’, and keumireueh means ‘scrapping for food’. From the two examples, it can be said that the Acehnese similes tend to make use of animal referenced-analogy to unveil someone’s foul character in life. From the elaboration and example mentioned above, it can be learned that the expression of Acehnese idioms and similes and their meanings produced are not related to each other. Those idioms and similes cannot be translated as their meanings are quite blurred; their meanings, indeed, are implicitly beyond their word construction to form the phrases. Then, the question might arise; what are idiom and simile? 321 | Studies in English Language and Education, 6(2), 319-332, 2019 Firstly, an idiom is a formulaic language in which one should understand the whole words rather than a single unit word (O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010). Furthermore, Richards and Schmidt (2002) claim that idiom is a part of a language whose meaning must not be translated one by one, yet one should translate it as a whole set to get its transparent and good meaning. Underpinning the statement above, then, the first-rate conclusion which could be drawn overwhelmingly is that in idiomatic expression, one- word binding another has nothing to do with each other, so a stupendous idea either to comprehend or understand it is merely by a comprehensive translation. Secondly, a simile is a figure of speech which is used to compare one object with another that pose a couple of similarities; the two objects compared essentially resemble one another by adding the word ‘like’ or ‘as’ (Fadaee, 2011). In Acehnese language, particularly, this kind of figure of speech is mostly related to animals, plants, or things in an attempt to link one thing to another and, too, to make up its literal meaning (Azwardi, 2014; Nurrahmah, 2013). Furthermore, some Acehnese simile used in communication represents humans’ bad behavior, such as stingy, greedy, coward, inconsistent, betrayal, and so on. For instance, to portray a stingy person, as mentioned above, Acehnese makes an analogy of lagee tarupah aneuk jok bak abah bui. This simile introduces an analogy of a human and an animal, i.e. bui is ‘pig’. Its literal meaning is that lagee means ‘like’, tarupah is defined as ‘to wrest’, aneuk jok is ‘the fruit of sugar palm’, bak means ‘in’, abah constitute ‘mouth’, and bui means ‘pig’. Because pig likes the fruit very much, so it is hard to wrest or take it away from its mouth. From that literal meaning, it could be concluded that a stingy person who does not want to share anything with others are analogized with such simile. Based on research conducted by Azwardi (2014), most of the Acehnese figurative languages— idioms and similes — closely linked to animals or called animal-referenced similes. To be precise, Acehnese people tend to address people with a bad attitude to animals’ character. Acehnese people magnify those figurative languages – idioms and similes -- to give advice, entertain, analogize, and quip other people Raisa et al. (2016) in a conversation. Those Acehnese idioms and similes, precisely, have lived over centuries among native Acehnese as a way to smoothen the essence of communication both in written and in spoken. In other words, those can add up colors to a conversation in which they empower what the speaker intentionally means. Concerning the importance of Acehnese idioms and similes among Acehnese communities, the researchers conducted a research study on Acehnese idioms and similes. The research was aimed to investigate Acehnese adolescents’ knowledgeability about those two figurative languages as an attempt to preserve the local language in the future. The researchers picked up the adolescents since they are notable as the young generation who will preserve, continue, and promoting the uniqueness of Acehnese language in the future. The written and oral literature that is transferred from generation to generation is one of the effective ways to preserve culture (Nasir, 2015). Therefore, the research question formulated for this research is: To what extent are Acehnese adolescents aware of Acehnese idioms and similes? I. Muliawati, N. M. Ismail, & F. B. Zalha, Acehnese adolescents’ awareness of Acehnese idiom and simile | 322 2. LITERATURE REVIEW In semantics, we have already known about speaker meaning (utterance meaning) when it relates to non-literal meaning. This kind of meaning is also largely determined by the intentions of people when they want to express their ideas. In addition to this term, hurford et al. (2007), then classify the non-literal meaning into three broad categories, they are idiomatic expressions, metaphor, and metonymy.